Crafting Artifact (purple) while levelling?

[Eusevio]

People on here have complained that crafting is not worth much at level 50, but I wanted to do Cybertech while I was leveling and use the upgradeable armor.

 

I did manage to craft a useful purple earpiece once, so I decided to learn the purple mods/armoring a few levels ahead of time and actually get a nice benefit from Cybertech for a few levels.

 

The problem is that each item needs 4 purple metals, which I have never seen for sale or from my Underworld missions. I calculated that I need 32 of these metals to upgrade my current gear. I am intentionally levelling slowly and playing alts to search for these metals, but do not think I will ever get to make any.

 

Should I just build blue quality and move on?

Edited February 6, 2012 by Eusevio

[GnatB]

1 earpiece, 4 purple mats, you and the companion you actually use, 8 total.

 

 

I'm missing something here.

 

That being said, I went synthweaving, selling stuff to sell as well as making stuff for myself. I "discovered" early on that due to how long it takes to discover/make stuff, it's harder than I would have expected to find the stuff you actually want to buy available on the GTN, so the only way to get it is to make it yourself. (seriously, only crafted implants for sale on my server were garbage green ones... so I made a bio alt)

 

Anyways, back on topic. since I try to always have blue stuff up for sale, I generally have a fairly good stash of purple mats. (optained when the UT missions crit). That being said, due to how long it takes to reverse engineer stuff, I only ever attempt purple chest pieces... which is only like every 8 levels or so. IIRC cybertech gets a new earpiece every 4 levels or so. I definitely wouldn't try constantly getting purple ones. So I'd argue either go purple every other set of earpieces, (and skip the interim set entirely) or go for blue every level.

 

As to which of those options I'd suggest most (and is what I'm doing with MY cybertech?)Unlike armor, Earpieces don't give an armor jump in going from blue to purple, so all purple gives you is that 2nd set of bonus stats. Existing stats don't even improve any (most of the time, and I suspect when they do it's a bug). And (IMO) on average, surge, presence, shielding, accuracy or alacrity, (the stats you *may* get added when it goes purple) aren't all that worth it. Typically, only 1 of the 5 is even all that useful to a particular character, (shield for tanks, surge for DPS, and *possibly* alacrity for healers, though surge is probably better for the mtoo) and the difficulty in getting just that ONE purple is almost absurd, especially when leveling.

[Jerid]

Yeah,

Unfortunately UT Metals is currently borked.

So I'd say stick with the blues. You won't loose all that much armoro/stats from it.

 

(I'm planning on putting up a post tomorrow with details, but I left my USB drive with my spreadsheet at home this morning).

 

For now the only skill that's it's practical to keep in purple quaility as you level is barels from Armstech and maybe implats from Biochem (haven't gotten heavy into it yet).

 

Part of the reason armstech barels work is because you basicaly only need 1 purple every 4 levels.

I alternated buying the recepeis from the trainer even/Odd for skill/reflex which keeps me in good enough barelsas I've been leveling. (Although there's an argument to be made for "Just buy them with with a couple of commendations at the market instead")

[Valkon]

While leveling don't focus on purple items, you will end up sitting there running missions to get that stack of purple mats you need to craft all your gear then have no money for abilities or anything else. Just stick to main items, like the earpiece and you won't be using more than the materials you acquire while leveling your crew mission. Blue quality items are still ahead of what you will loot, so making blue armoring will help you out, and you shouldn't have trouble getting the materials, from blue to purple it's only +1-2 on stats, and 4-8 on rating for armoring, while a purple earpiece gives a nice chunk of a new stat.

[jamescloutier]

I'm missing something here.

 

yes he went from talking about the ear pieces to mods and armoring and how they use 4 rare (purple) mats each. 4 moddable pieces, 8 rares per piece = 32 rares. At that won't incled the enhancements/hilts/power crystals to finish upgrading the pieces.

 

I do have to say that the crafting on the mods is very expensive. I haven't had a chance to do a side by side on stats of a modded armor/weapon vs equal level & quality crafted armor/weapon but I don't think the difference in mats is near equal to the difference in stats.

 

Personally I've gone to doing blues for my armor and if I feel lucky purples on the weapon(s).

[Eusevio]

yes he went from talking about the ear pieces to mods and armoring and how they use 4 rare (purple) mats each. 4 moddable pieces, 8 rares per piece = 32 rares. At that won't incled the enhancements/hilts/power crystals to finish upgrading the pieces.

 

Yes that is what I meant. I had built a purple earpiece once, which gave me the idea to go for purple mods and armoring too. I even started a few levels ahead of time, knowing it would take time. Maybe the lower level purple metal was more common, but class 4 metal was a big mistake, the mats are too rare or I am too unlucky.

 

Underworld 4 missions are green or gray, and I never saw the metal for sale. If I someday do crit a mission, I am worried I will get 2/4 metals I need for 1 mod, which is 1 of 3 slots on 1 of my items... and barely better than the blue mods I had to scrap.

 

I guess I will RE the green items, then use or sell the blue ones.

Edited February 6, 2012 by Eusevio

[Saldrex]

Crafting epics in any game while level is usually never worth it. Leveling gear is replaced. I personally never crafted anything higher than greens when I leveled as cybertech and crafted myself artifact quality mods at 50. If you really care about blue quality items, they can be purchased much of the time from commendation vendors (which as well is a way to lose potential money and often a way to have you companions fall behind unless you craft new gear). Some people like to be in top gear at all levels to make things a bit easier, it is however not 100% necessary to do so. Letting companion gear fall behind is from my experience one of the easiest ways to make soloing extremely hard (maybe it varies more between class and spec but of the 4 I have raised It seems true). REing is also one of the more subtle ways to destroy your money pool while leveling, I also only did it if I needed the mats back on something. Edited February 6, 2012 by Saldrex

[Raani]

Stick to blue armorings/mods. Unless you're a tank, they will be a ton better than what you can get from the commendation vendors. Blue mats are fairly easy to get from UT, if you know the reset trick. Replace them every 4 levels or so.

 

Save your commendations for things you can't make and the occasional upgrade for your companions. If you're gearing a tanking companion, buy the droid parts (which are usually cheap, 4-5 coms) and rip the mods out. It's a lot cheaper than buying them new modded pieces every time.

 

Purples aren't really worth it because you outlevel them too fast. Considering how long blues take to make and how many you'll need to make before you proc the purple, it's a huge time investment. If you're a completionist, go for it, but it's not very practical. Blues are more than sufficient, in my opinion.

[Auhfel]

yes he went from talking about the ear pieces to mods and armoring and how they use 4 rare (purple) mats each. 4 moddable pieces, 8 rares per piece = 32 rares. At that won't incled the enhancements/hilts/power crystals to finish upgrading the pieces.

 

I do have to say that the crafting on the mods is very expensive. I haven't had a chance to do a side by side on stats of a modded armor/weapon vs equal level & quality crafted armor/weapon but I don't think the difference in mats is near equal to the difference in stats.

 

Personally I've gone to doing blues for my armor and if I feel lucky purples on the weapon(s).

 

expensive, sure, but not as expensive as trying to RE a full set of armor to Purple.. especially if you want it to ahve the "right" bonuses.

[wainot-keel]

 

[...]

Blue mats are fairly easy to get from UT, if you know the reset trick. Replace them every 4 levels or so.

 

[...]

 

Which reset trick ?

[Raani]

Log out and back, or enter/exit your ship. That resets your mission selection, so you're not stuck running missions you don't want in order to get the others to spawn. Sure, it's annoying with the loading screens, but if you're persistent, you can have all your companions running good missions.

[Battilea]

To get the purples, you either need the purple slicer missions (which should give you 4 purple, 8 blue of the metals) or you need to crit a regular UT metal mission. To maximize your crit chances, you'll want to use a companion that has a bonus to crits on UT missions, if you have one, and max out the affection of your companions. Every 2k affection will raise their chance.

[SteveGarbage]

At lower levels it's not a problem. Items seem to RE to the artifact schematic you need pretty quickly and some of the early purple materials seem easier to come across. Also, missions are fairly cheap.

 

As you get up there though, like 30+, it doesn't become worth it any more. I remember when I was trying to get Krayt Dragon Pearls from Treasure Hunting for some artifact hilts on my Sentinel, I ran so many missions that I had around 200 blue-grade gems before I got my eighth purple I needed to craft. I probably sank around 50k credits into that. When you're around level 25-30, that's a ton.

 

I'm nearing 50 now so I'm going to focus on trying to get purples for myself to round out all my gear for PvE stuff. But I expect it to be quite costly in the process.

[pangwl]

Yeah... if u're levelling, just the blues will be fine... but if you want to try to get purple get them over at commendations and RE them to help in your lack of mats...

 

Purple is really not worth it @ lvl50, you get "mods X 23-- in purple" and u get them through dailies commendation. Run them for a week, and u should get whatever mods that u need. of course, farming on FPs work as well.

[Jerrich]

I thought the mats gathered from a mission depended on the level of the mission, Moderate, Rich, Abundant, etc. And the purple crafting mats only dropped from the most expensive/longest one.

[Raani]

You are more likely to get purple mats from Rich missions, but I've had companions crit on Moderate as well. While I expect crits from Tanno Vik, given his UT bonus, I've had all the other ones crit at various times on missions from which I wasn't expecting Mando Iron (I was just farming Ciridium so I can RE another hundred thousand earpieces).

[Eusevio]

Update, just got a crit mission... 3 of the 4 metals I would need for one mod, oh yeah! At this rate I will be level 50 by the time I can make a single level 35 mod.

 

I will probably just sell the metal since apparently I have a monopoly.

Edited February 7, 2012 by Eusevio

[wainot-keel]

Log out and back, or enter/exit your ship. That resets your mission selection, so you're not stuck running missions you don't want in order to get the others to spawn. Sure, it's annoying with the loading screens, but if you're persistent, you can have all your companions running good missions.

 

Didn't know that. Thanks